Other NotablesG Nic Riopel, KAL, did not play
Season Totals: 28 GP, 16-10-0-1, 2.88 GAA, 0.903 SV%, 1 SO

The K-Wings lit up the Fuel with 45 shots and 5 goals Saturday night, and Joel Martin allowed just one goal to split the weekend home-and-home series with Indy. Both Bolt prospects forwards Cam Darcy and Brian Hart notched goals, with Darcy banging home a Lane Scheidl rebound for the K-Wings 2nd goal. Hart beat out an icing call to track down the puck and deposited it in the empty net for an insurance marker late in the 3rd. Kalamazoo has three-game homestand up next week, starting with the high-powered Florida Everblades on Wednesday night, followed by a back-to-back Friday and Saturday night against the Norfolk Admirals.

Kristers Gudlevskis allowed just 1 goal on 42 shots for the victory, helping the Crunch overcome a 42-28 shot disparity. Since the trade deadline, Gudlevskis has suddenly been locked in while veteran Mike McKenna has struggled, begging the question of who will really be the team's number one goaltender heading into the playoffs.

With the Albany Devils nipping at their heels in the standings, the Syracuse Crunch found a way to pull out a win.

Kristers Gudlevskis recorded 41 saves and Matthew Peca netted his second goal of the night in overtime, as the Crunch outlasted the Devils, 2-1, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Saturday.

For Syracuse head coach Benoit Groulx, the game showed his players could get two points even if they weren’t at their best.

“We were a vulnerable team tonight, playing our ninth game in 16 days with traveling in the middle of that and playing against a rested team,” Groulx said. “I thought our goalie was phenomenal. He allowed us to stay in that game, obviously. They were skating better than us. They were first on pucks. They were the best team on the ice tonight, but we found a way.”

Valiant effort by the Lightning still playing with darn near all their centers out of the lineup and really testing the East's best team. Were it not for a bit of embellishment that led to the call in the Third Period that led to Williams' goal shortly after its conclusion, Tampa Bay might've well gotten points out of the evening.

Unfortunately, with the standings predicament the Lightning are in, there are no moral victories. They're running out of road quickly.

St. Patrick's Day at the Wings Event Center means one thing - green ice. It also means the team with the second fewest goals scored in the league and the second worst record in the league coming in and putting six up on the scoreboard. Nic Riopel and the K-Wings surrendered a second intermission lead, allowing 2 goals on just 7 third period shots for just his second loss in 14 starts. Lightning prospect Cam Darcy had a goal and two assists despite the loss, earning Third Star honors. Next up for Kalamazoo is a rematch with the Fuel in Indianapolis Saturday night.

Mike McKenna allowed 4 goals on 23 shots for the loss. Thus far with Syracuse he is 1-3-1 with a 4.23 GAA and a .868 save percentage. His acquisition has not led to the expected results thus far, needless to say.

Tye McGinn was the game's second star. Since returning from injury on 3/3, McGinn has 6-2-8 in 8 games. And there ain't nothing wrong with those stats.

Tonight's game was a frustrating one. Syracuse outshot Utica 38-23 and battled their way back from a pair of 2 goal deficits to get things level in the Third Period only to eventually lose the contest in regulation. The consistency from the net out needs to get dramatically better by the playoffs.

Rather than write a full game report, I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while tonight. It's probably been a couple of years, but I'm going to skip the detailed post mortem of what happened tonight to offer you a different perspective.

It didn't happen.

The fact of the matter is the Lightning were completing a marathon leg of 4 games in 6 nights, and while the effort level was good, they just couldn't get a single bounce to go their way all game long. It's not overly surprising under the circumstances, and it happens. Do we all wish it hadn't happened under this particular circumstance in the standings and against this particular club? Sure. But what's done can't be undone, and there's too much heavy lifting left to do for the club to really dwell on a seemingly impossible night at the office. Better to bury it now and just move on like it didn't happen when the sun rises tomorrow morning, especially for young netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy who still has a lot more big moments to face down before now and the finish line of the regular season.

Nikita Gusev had the opening goal for SKA in their 2-0 Game Five blanking of Dynamo Moscow to send them to the WHL Western Conference Final. Gusev played 13:23 in the match. Ex-Isles pick Mikko Koskinen stopped all 20 shots he faced for the shutout victory. SKA will face the winner of the CSKA vs. Yaroslavl series in the next round. The 4th seeded Lokomotiv currently lead CSKA in that series 3-2.

Mike McKenna allowed 4 goals on 48 shots for the victory. Suffice it to say McKenna hasn't cloaked himself in glory thus far in Syracuse, but he bathed in the deep waters of sweet, sweet goal support tonight.

Kevin Lynch and Mike McKenna were the game's first and third stars. McKenna was an interesting selection after getting bailed out by a Crunch extra attacker goal that took him off the hook for a late game softie.